


kintsukuroi

by bellonaria



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Historical, Bending (Avatar), Demon/Human Relationships, F/M, Feudalism, Hate to Love, Inspired by InuYasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale, Love/Hate, Slow Burn Katara/Zuko (Avatar)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-21
Updated: 2020-10-29
Packaged: 2021-03-04 07:28:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,138
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24846058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bellonaria/pseuds/bellonaria
Summary: Fate brings Katara, a headstrong peasant from the Southern Water Tribe, and Zuko, a foul-tempered ronin samurai with a cryptic past and mysterious scar, together as they travel to the hostile Northern kingdoms in search of their own private redemptions. Born to despise each other, Katara and Zuko are forced to work together--after all, they each have something the other desperately needs. Will hatred turn to love as they roam the landscape of feudal Japan, battling armies of demons? Or will the secrets they carry force them apart forever?
Relationships: Katara/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 19





	1. Fire at the Shrine

**Author's Note:**

> This is my attempt to jump back into writing fic after a solid half-decade away from AO3. Heavily inspired by binge-watching InuYasha and A:TLA during the quarantine. I did my best to make the details at least somewhat historically accurate, but there will likely be a handful of errors that I hope y'all will forgive. Thanks for giving this leap of faith a chance.

_There is a story once told in the northern kingdoms of a cursed prince who was banished from his tribe by his cruel father. This exiled prince roamed the land, using his unusual strength to perform violent tasks for warring lords and stealing what he could from pillaged villages. He took advantage of all who crossed his path, and it was said that he could produce a strange fire at will--a fire unlike the flames that could be summoned by other benders._

* * *

The road was dark, and the trees lining it full of strange sounds. Moonlight shifted between the branches and in the pale beams a girl with dark hair moved silently through the pines. Her footsteps were light yet confident, the surefooted grace of a bender. Katara kept off the main road, wary of other travelers. This late at night there would be few with good intentions.   
A sudden burst of movement from the branches above her caused Katara to freeze, her heart pounding as her hand moved automatically to the clay vessel she kept tied to her waist. She let out a quiet breath of relief when the noise proved to be only a flock of small white birds erupting from a nearby tree. In the distance, Katara could see a farmhouse, a single lantern burning outside, and beyond that a cluster of outbuildings. Creeping past the darkened windows, she slipped into the barn and spread her bedroll behind a hay bale. The low rafters were full of the warm, thick smell of animal fur and the soft sounds of shifting cattle. Curled in her sealskin sack, Katara fell into a dreamless sleep.   
She awoke to the sound of distant screams and the acrid smell of smoke on the wind. Katara hastily packed her bedroll and clambered through the window moments before a pair of men burst into the barn. They shouted to each other as they hastily saddled their horses.   
“The shrine is already burning to the ground--some kind of fire demon!”   
“It must be the same one that struck the other villages last month!”   
_A fire demon_ , Katara thought, turning towards the billows of black smoke rising from beyond the farmhouse. It was less than a mile into town, if she ran she could be there in a matter of minutes. Before she had a chance to make up her mind, Katara found herself already sprinting through the wood. The smoke became thicker as she grew closer to the village, and she shoved the arm of her robe against her nose and mouth. But reaching the village’s gates, she froze.   
“The village,” Katara breathed, “it’s gone.”   
The wooden gates had been smashed, the handful of humble wooden houses reduced to smoldering heaps of timber. The bodies of the village men lay in the wagon-rutted street, charred beyond recognition. The acrid smell of burnt flesh turned Katara’s stomach and sent fear shooting through her veins like ice. In an instant, Katara felt herself shrink to a young girl again, standing in the smoking remains of a fishing village on the southern coast--her village. The ash fell around her like cruel snow, and Katara choked back burning tears as she had as a child.   
Her reverie was broken by the muffled sounds of a woman weeping. Katara’s hands trembled as she rushed towards the source of the noise, clutching her clay water vessel. Cowering in a copse of trees beyond the scorched shrine was a girl no older than twelve, her torn tunic revealing scraped knees. When she saw Katara, the girl scurried behind a thick pine trunk.   
“No, it’s alright,” Katara assured her, moving slowly forward. “I won’t hurt you. I came here to help your village but––”   
“They’re dead,” the girl whispered hoarsely. “They’re all dead. Everything is _gone_ , b-burned.”   
Katara drew water from her vessel and applied the quivering droplets to the girl’s bloody knees.   
“How many were there?” She asked, finding solace in the glow of the healing water.   
“Just one,” said the girl, and her lower lip trembled. “A fire demon, eyes that glowed like coals. Some of the men tried to fight him but...he was too strong. They wounded him, but he fled into the forest.” She paused for several moments. “He took something from the shrine––a pearl from the southern seas.”   
Katara shifted the water back into her vessel, and the girl smoothed her palms over her healed knees.   
“Thank you.”   
“Of course,” Katara replied. “Where will you go? Do you have any family left?”   
The girl rose unsteadily to her feet and squinted through the trees.   
“My sister lives in a village a few miles down the road. I can make it there by evening, she’ll take me in.”   
Katara nodded and urged the child to be wary of bandits on the main road. She hated to see the girl set off alone towards the south, a small figure disappearing into the smoke. And yet Katara knew that her destination lay farther to the north, and she could not turn back now. A pearl, she thought. The girl had mentioned a pearl from the southern seas, stolen away by the demon. Could it be one of the pearls that her grandmother had told stories of, the ones snatched from the spirit of the sea by a trickster demon from the north? Could it be...the same demon? 

The smell of smoke followed Katara as she continued through the forest, and the trees were devoid of birdsong. Her eyes stung and her throat ached. Following the elemental pull towards the water, Katara wove between strands of red pine and yew. She could sense it before she saw it, before she heard it: a mountain-fed stream rushing over mossy rocks. Katara waded knee-deep, relishing the icy water against her legs. She was weaving between the boulders that split the stream when she saw him––a man, lying motionless on his face between two jagged rocks near the banks.   
Katara waded towards him, lifting the hem of her garments. He wore a black kimono and a straw hat of the kind favored by travelers. Panting, Katara rolled him onto his back. He was young, she realized, only a few years older than herself, and the left half of his face was marred by a terrible scar.   
_He’s been burned_ , Katara thought, automatically reaching to pool a healing orb between her palms before she realized the futility of her actions––the scar was old, probably something he’s obtained as a child. He must have been burned by the Fire Clan.   
With a quiet gasp, Katara realized that the water beside the stranger was pooling pale red––he’d been injured, perhaps in the fight for the village. She raised her healing water to the three long gashes on his chest and side but knew that it would not be enough. He needed bandages, and to be left in the stream in this state would certainly mean death.  
With no small amount of effort, Katara dragged him from the water. A hundred yards or so into the woods was an old fishing shack, long since abandoned. The roof sagged and half of the stream-facing wall had collapsed, but Katara knew that she could not leave this traveler alone on the banks and dust was rapidly approaching. Her lean muscles tensed as she hauled him into the shelter of the crumbling lean-to.   
“I’m going to gather some wood for a fire,” Katara said out loud, although she was certain that the stranger was deep asleep. “I’ll be back soon, and then I’ll bandage your wounds.”  
By the time she returned with a bundle of tinder and sticks, the sky was dark and there were crickets chirping in the underbrush. Katara boiled water and cut a few strips of cloth from the bottom of the stranger’s ragged cloak. He did not stir as she gently washed and bandaged the deep gashes on his chest and side. Katara sat beside the crackling fire, staring out into the darkness. A sense of unease lingered, and she felt that whatever had attacked the shrine and the village was still out there somewhere, lurking in the trees. After hours of keeping watch, exhaustion overwhelmed her, and Katara was asleep long before the stars began to set. 


	2. The Road Between Trees

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Katara finds herself alone in a hut with the mysterious stranger she's rescued only the day before. Will she take him up on an offer to travel together to another village?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone, hope you're all surviving this hellscape of a year so far. I've been trying to juggle work, school, and being a functioning human being. Again, possible (let's face it...probable) historical inaccuracies in this chapter. Sorry this chapter a shortie--there's more coming soon!

In the breaking light, Katara stirred beside the ashes of the previous evening's small fire. She glanced around, bleary-eyed, then gasped as she recalled the injured man she'd found in the forest. Wheeling around, she discovered him crouching in the corner, gazing out the dilapidated shack's small window. The hood of his traveling cloak was drawn around his face.

"Uhm," Katara cleared her throat. He seemed better, at least. "How do you feel?" 

He turned towards her and their eyes met. Katara realized that his were golden, the color of wheat in the late summertime. _He wouldn't dare attack, would he? Not after she'd saved his hide yesterday?_

"I'm fine," he replied. "You must have brought me here. Thank you." She noticed that he offered no name, and she didn't ask. 

"I found you in the stream. You were unconscious, badly wounded. I bandaged the cuts for you." 

His hand went to his chest, and he glanced away. Katara felt pity well in her chest. To have your village attacked, your people slaughtered, and to be rendered helpless while it happened...it was a sensation that was too familiar. 

"I met a girl on the road," she offered. _Maybe he knows her_. "She said a fire demon attacked the shrine there, that he stole something from them." 

Katara didn't mention the pearl. She'd heard the legends as a child, of course, everyone in their village had, but it was certainly just that--a child's fairytale. An ancient pearl, a gift to the first tribes on the land from the goddess of the sea, once passed among the bending clans as a symbol of peace and goodwill. And the powers that the pearl was rumored to hold must be simply the stuff of legend. Still, she didn't feel like delving into her clan's verbal history at the moment. Certainly not to a stranger. 

"The village was burned to the ground," Katara continued, "and I don't think there were many survivors." 

The stranger turned fully away from her, his gaze fixed somewhere beyond the treetops. 

"I'm sorry," Katara offered. She moved to sweep away the ashes from the fire pit, then stood and rubbed them away with her foot. It was best if there was no evidence of their stay left behind. "It's terrible." 

"You're leaving," said the stranger, looking her up and down as she gathered her things. Katara nodded. "It's brave of you to travel alone." 

She poked her head out of the door, glancing around. The forest was quiet... _too_ quiet. Anyone who'd spent time in the woods knew that when animals fell silent, it was a general indication of danger nearby. Katara's thoughts lept unbidden to the horrors she'd witnessed the day prior. The air still smelled vaguely of ash. 

"I've been traveling awhile," she said. "I'm not afraid." 

That was a lie. In truth, she'd feared for her life numerous times in the past few months she'd spent on the roads headed north. 

"You must have come a long way," said the stranger, his eyes bright beneath his hood. "You're a water bender from the south, aren't you?"

Katara nodded. She supposed the traveler must have visited her people once, knew their way of dress. She raised her hand to the amulet at her neck. It was silly to wear something that identified her as a Southern water tribe member, but it had been her mother's. She'd never take it off.

A strange look passed fleetingly over the stranger's face. Katara stared at him. He didn't seem dangerous, but she knew better than to naively trust a friendly face. Still, Katara was feeling less and less inclined to travel the roads between here and the next town on her own. Not when there was a fire demon lurking in the woods. 

"I'm headed north-east," the stranger told her suddenly, "to a small village near the coastal mountains. My grandmother lives there. It's no more than day or two's walk from here. Perhaps we can travel together." 

Katara eyed him carefully. He was a stranger, to be sure, and she didn't even know his name but she wasn't eager to step out into that forest on her own. And she was headed north anyway. Perhaps the stranger had combat skills, even if he wasn't a bender. 

"Alright," Katara found herself saying, "we'll travel together." 

She turned away before she could see the smirk that turned the corners of his mouth upwards, exposing a single white fanged incisor. 


End file.
